“Have a seat.” She closed the door behind us. “It’s not hot. At least not worse than usual. And you are totally flushed.”
“I guess it’s just me. Oh well.”
“Not oh well. You can’t tell me you don’t recognize the signs?”
“Do you think I’m getting sick? I hope not. I have finals coming up and—”
“Not sick, Harper. This isn’t your first heat, is it?”
My heart sank. “I’m on the new suppressants, and there was a chance it could cause this. Crap and more crap. I’m sorry. I won’t let it affect my work.”
She laughed. “It’s not your work I’m worried about. Go peek into the front of the shop and come back.”
“What?” I tiptoed to the door in between the kitchen and front of house. The second I opened it a crack, the dozen alphas lingering in the front jerked their heads to look at me. I backed up all the way into the office. “Not good. I guess I should just stay in the back.”
“This is just the start. By tomorrow, they’ll be breaking down the door and flipping you over the marble pastry counter. You have to go home. Now. And don’t come back until it’s over.”
Home.
Where there were three alphas.
Maybe I could lock myself in my room.
Chapter Fourteen
Miles
I arrived home from class early since my last one was canceled. Not one shoe was kicked off before Harper’s scent smacked me in the face.
Our omega was in heat.
That happened sooner than I thought.
I pulled out my phone and texted Lev and Rowan.Harper’s in heat. Get home now.
“Harper!” I called out and rushed to her room. The door was closed but through it, I felt her pain and discomfort. Our omega was in need. Desperate need.
“I’m here,” she said from inside the room.
“Can I come in?” I asked, knocking on the door.
“Yes.”
Inside, her scent was even stronger. Our omega sat on the bed, her phone open. She wasn’t in a fetal position or anything, so the heat must’ve only begun. My head was fuzzy and my senses were running on overdrive.
Not to mention, my wolf.
Mate her. Mark her. Make her ours. Care for her.
“How bad is it?” I asked our omega. No reason in dancing around the subject.
“It’s just starting. I thought this was a far-off possibility. That I would transition to these new meds and everything would be okay. With everything that happened to me, I feel like the most naive person on the damned planet.”
“You’re not.” I sat next to her on the bed and she perfumed stronger than before. “A heat is natural. I know you’ve come to look at it like war because of your old pack, but omegas should have heats. Safe. Protected. Intimate. Private heats.”
She put down her phone and turned to me. Her voice was strained. “Can you just hold me? I know I moved in here as a friend, but…”
“Harper, you’ve always been more than a friend. Let’s not pretend you can’t scent me because I can certainly scent you.”
